Twenty one boxes and counting ...

The shredder in the office has become my new play toy ... I would love to send a boquet of flowers to the folks who created paper shredders ...

Our paper shredder has been very busy over the last few days - we've been cleaning out the many boxes that have been sitting in the new office space since the fire. There are still lots to plough (and shred through) but we've managed to get rid of 21 boxes of papers and stuff ...

Along the way we've cleared alot of floor space for the furniture ... and we've gotten rid of papers that should of been discarded long ago ... do we really need to keep photo copies of the corner of twenty dollar bills given to our Memorial Fund in 1992??? In duplicate??? Shredder - here they come!!!!!

The next project will be organizing the donations to the food cupboard from the local Curves Exercise studio for women ... it will help bolster our cupboard ... it won't replace the 1200 pounds of food that was lost in the fire ... but it WILL help.

The other exciting bit of news this week came on Wednesday night - local artist Cathy Mansell created a beautiful sketch of the Church in its glory. It was a project she had been thinking about BEFORE the fire. But on Wednesday she called myself and Elgin Hall and presented each of us with a lovely copy of the sketch.

The sketch is beautiful. The framed prints of it are now available in three sizes in several places here in town ... the proceeds of all sales of the prints from now to May 2007 will be donated to the Rebuilding Fund. They are a lovely reminder of a grand old building ... So, if you're looking for a unique memento of the Church - find one of Cathy's prints - You won't be disappointed.

And another highlight was finding a couple of beautiful pictures of the Heritage Window that graces the west wall of the Sanctuary of the Church. The first picture turned up on Sunday when I was looking for something else, and found the photo album of photos I took when I came to Minnedosa in March 2000 (I accepted the offer of call to Minnedosa on April 1st 2000). I had forgotten that I took the photo of the window and a variety of other pictures of the church.

From this discovery have come two creative responses ... The first was the creation of a cleaned up version of the stained glass window: I took the picture to Jennifer Hyde at Minnedosa Funeral Services and in about an hour she had removed the ceiling light that was obstructing a corner of the window, and she highlighted the colours - in short, she did a great job creating a template for a note card that we could get printed and sell, again for the rebuilding effort ...

The second creative response found me wandering along Main St finding the same spot I stood on 6 years ago when I took the exterior shots of the Church. This time I took a shot of the vacant lot and in one year I will take another shot, and then in two years I will do it again ... and we will have a before - during - after sequence of photos of MInnedosa United Church's site on Main St ... It's hard to look at the vacant lot and NOT think about what we've lost - but in time we will celebrate what we've been able to gain ... That's the resurrection.

So ... that's the week that was in Minnedosa (sort of ...). We popped up in the United Church Observer (again - this time about the fire, not rural issues). We've dedicated the new Hymn Books with the Spiritual Care Committee at the Care Home, we've sifted through our accumulated stuff and we've had our debriefing sessions with the counsellor from Brandon ... it's been a full week. In the coming days we turn our faces to the streets of Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week. The symbolism of the coming week is a reminder that even in the dark moments when we feel very much alone, God is still with us ... Easter will come - but sometimes the only way to Easter morning is through the long dark shadows of Gethsemene and Golgotha. They are not comfortable places to go ... but our journey beckons us forward, and God will be with us each step of the way ...

L'chaim,